The volume Planning for Death: Wills and Death-Related Property Arrangements in Europe, 1200-1600 analyses death-related property transfers in several European regions (England, Poland, Italy, South Tirol, and Sweden).

Laws and customary practice provided a legal framework for all post-mortem property devolution. However, personal preference and varied succession strategies meant that individuals could plan for death by various legal means. These individual legal acts could include matrimonial property arrangements (marriage contracts, morning gifts) and legal means of altering heirship by subtracting or adding heirs. Wills and testamentary practice are given special attention, while the volume also discusses the timing of the legal acts, suggesting that while some people made careful and timely arrangements, others only reacted to sudden events.

Contents after the break: Part 1: Range of Legal Options and Their Use2 Inheritance Law, Wills, and Strategies of Heirship in Medieval Sweden. Mia Korpiola and Elsa Trolle Önnerfors 3 Monastic Donations by Widows: Morning Gifts as Assets in Planning for Old Age and Death in Fifteenth-Century Sweden. Tuula Rantala 4 Competing Interests in Death-Related Stipulations in South Tirol, c. 1350–1600. Christian Hagen, Margareth Lanzinger, and Janine MaegraithPart 2: Wills, Property Strategies, and Testamentary Practice5 Medieval English Lawyers’ Wills and Property Strategies. Anthony Musson 6 Men and Women Preparing for Death in Renaissance Venice (c. 1200–1600). Federica Masè 7 Mutual Testaments in Late Medieval Stockholm, c. 1420–1520. Marko LambergPart 3: Wills, Property, and Authority8 Wills as Tools of Power: Development of Testamentary Practice in Krakow during the Late Middle Ages. Jakub Wysmułek 9 Deathbed Strife and the Law of Wills in Medieval and Early Modern England. R.H. Helmholz 10 The Will of Filippa Fleming (1578), Family Relations, and Swedish Inheritance Law. Anu Lahtinen Further information is available here.